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Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Wild Horses.

Where have I been? I've been in writing heaven.. Or hell, I can't decide. Yet again I have had a dream that has inspired my writing once more. I really am worried that my subconscious will be sueing me for the rights to any books I write should I get them published. She's tricky that way.

Anywho, what I'm about to post is not in any way me giving up on the Utopia series as I have already written about five chapters of book two. But, as my brain is never happy with just over-achieving, but rather multi-tasking whilst I over achieve, it has been nagging me to at least write the prologue to this new dream inspired book.

On top of this, I am working full time, studying for my NVQ in business administration AND trying to organise a fund raiser for my trip to America... Yet somehow I still feel like I'm being lazy as well... I'm not too sure how this works, maybe I need to take something new on...

But anyway, I'm not sure when I'm going to write anymore about this book, I just needed to get the prologue down, otherwise my brain was ready to explode on me and that would have taken ages for The-Family I live with to clean.

I don't want to say much more about this book as of yet, except to say its more real life this time round rather than science fictiony.

Without further ado; I give you the prologue to my book "Wild Horses." Let me know what you think.

Prologue

Autumn peered through the small crack in the window blind. People filed in, one after the other, all carrying the same item. Her item. There were hundreds of people out there, she knew that the excited line of people went back for at least a mile. And they were all here to see her.

That was enough to set her over the edge, she shut the blind and immediately placed her head between her knees. Taking deep breaths, she tried desperately to stop the world from spinning around her.

"Sit down." Came Leah's familiar voice.

Autumn did as she was told and found a glass of Pepsi Max and a bar of Galaxy thrust in front of her.

"Take these and go to your comfort place." Leah said.

Autumn nodded and took both items readily. She crossed her legs on the chair, closed her eyes and took a sip and a bite. She refrained from the therapeutic ideation of a beach, it was too easy for her thoughts to stray, instead she picked her flat. She would give anything to be in her flat right now, away from the growing noise outside, somewhere she could just shut the door, crawl under her duvet and shut herself off from the world. She mentally shut the door to her flat and dragged the duvet to her beautiful sofa. There she lay watching reruns of That 70s Show and mouthing the words along with the characters.

She felt some of the stress ebb away. Her thoughts quietened and she allowed herself another portion of chocolate.

"Which episode of That 70s Show are you watching? Leah asked.

"Jackie and Hyde have just got together. No one else knows yet."

"Nice. Here you go."

Autumn opened her eyes to see an iPad in front of her. Season 4, Episode 1 all ready and waiting to be watched.

"You've got time." Leah said. "Watch it."

Autumn smiled at her PA. "What would I do without you?"

"Well, you'd still have your books, but I'm pretty certain you'd be a hermit by now."

Autumn accepted this to be pretty accurate and hit play on the tablet. The episode began and Leah backed away, leaving Autumn to it. Autumn settled into her chair and took another bite of chocolate. She was left undisturbed for the 20 minute episode.

As soon as she was finished and the end credits began to roll, Leah knocked on the door and popped her head into the room.

"It's time." She said.

Autumn nodded, all words escaping her. She slowly stood and walked on shaky legs out of the room and towards the shop floor.

"I think I'm going to throw up." Autumn said.

"You haven't thrown up for years." Leah answered. "Just 30 more seconds and you'll be there."

Autumn felt the waves of anxiety start to spin the room once more. "I don't think I'm going to make it."

As they reached the entrance to the floor, Autumn closed her eyes and held her breath. Stilling herself until she heard the words from the announcer outside.

"Ladies and Gents, the woman who never fails to make you laugh and cry simultaneously; I give you Autumn Blake!"

Leah pushed Autumn through the door at the sound of the people's cheers and Autumn opened her eyes, saw the crowd all looking at her expectantly and the switch was flipped. She smiled warmly at the growing cheers and waved at the people all screaming her name. Someone threw a pair of boxers at her and she caught them, laughing and holding them out for the audience to see.

"Alas, I don't think they're quite my size." She called out.

The crowd responded with laughter and cheers and a male voice called out.

"I made sure not to wash them after I wore them!"

Autumn laughed loudly and made sure to have as little contact as possible with the apparently dirty boxers, holding them between her forefinger and thumb.

"Wow. And I had hoped my fetish for dirty underwear would have been one of those secrets I'd have taken with me to the grave. Damn. How did you know?"

More laughter. Autumn laughed with them and glanced back at Leah who was ready with a ruler. Autumn placed them on the ruler and Leah left the room, the boxers held as far away from her as possible.

"Okay, well now that that's been taken care of." Autumn said. "Who would like me to sign some books?"

The roar that followed this question was deafening and Autumn rolled her eyes, motioning for the crowd to settle down as she made her way to the table. She reached for her book and opened it at the bookmarked page.

"I've been told that apparently people want me to read from it first." Autumn said. More cheers. "Lazy buggers." She said, once they had quietened down. "You could just read it yourselves, you know."

Laughter and applause. She smiled her winning smile and began the chapter. The room fell silent as she continued to read, her captive audience hanging on her every word. She shut them out and lost herself in her main protagonist. She loved this character above all characters she had written. She was balsy, sharp and everything that Autumn wished she could be. She was so lost in the book, she jumped when laughter erupted in response to her words. She looked up at the sea of faces.

"Sorry," she said. "I forgot you were all here. You gave me the shock of my life."

People cheered and she returned to her book, finishing the excerpt to a thunderous applause.

"I love you, Autumn!" Came a scream from the audience.

"Oh, so you're the one!" Autumn said back. "Nice to meet you. Okay, any questions?"

The rest of the hour sped by in a tirade of questions and compliments. Autumn accepted them all and answered excitedly. She loved this part of her job; talking to people about a world that, before she had out pen to paper, had never existed in their minds. She listened as people told her about the characters they identified with and the different characters they wished were real and married to. She soaked in it, knowing that this was the reason she continued to write; to be able to have moments like this. During that moment, she loved every person in that room, they were her people, each one an individual confirmation of why she gets out of bed each morning. In her dark days of self doubt and loathing, it was moments like this she drew on to give her hope. This large, ominous crowd who she was simultaneously in love with and terrified of.

Once the questions were drawn to a close, Autumn made a large gesture of stretching her fingers and grinned.

People rushed forward and Autumn's cheeks began to burn from all the smiling she did. After a couple of hours of this, the smile began to fade a little, fatigue beginning to set in as well as some of the same panic she had experienced before. The crowd just didnt seem to ebb away. Once one load of people were filed out, another rush came in, demanding as much excitement and enthusiasm from her as their predecessors.

Leah was at her side then, once more showing how completely attuned she was to Autumn's feelings. She whispered in her ear.

"Break?" She asked.

Autumn looked at her with so much gratification that Leah instantly started laughing.

"You've worn her out!" She addressed the crowd. "Half an hour break and she'll be back."

There were groans amongst the crowd but at least no one threw anything nasty at her. Not that Autumn could think of anything worse than the used underwear from the morning.

Her break seemed to end all too quickly, she looked at her empty plate forlornly as the end credits from That 70s Show once more played on her iPad. The prospect of going back out there, again began to terrify Autumn.

"Just three more hours." Leah said. "You know you'll be fine when you get out there."

Autumn sighed but didn't answer. Instead she stood before she could convince herself otherwise and made her way back to the throng of people. Leah was right, of course. Once she was out there, food now in her belly and another episode of the only series that could relax her in her mind, she was back to operating at almost 100%. She joked with her readers and had her picture taken on their phones.

She was in full flow when he arrived at her table. Him, that beautiful, beautiful man who's features Autumn had always lusted over had matured and become even more prominent than the last time she had seen him. She heard him before she saw him though, her gaze was down as she finished signing the book of the person in front of him.

"You are a sight for sore eyes." He said.

The voice was so familiar, even though it too seemed to have matured. Her gaze shot up immediately and looked him square in his breath takingly stunning ice blue eyes.

"Elijah?" She said, in disbelief.

"Hey Autumn." He said.

A flood of memories rushed into Autumn's mind as she heard him say her name. Memories of melodramatic teenage feelings. He was everything she had ever wanted for most of her adolescent age yet she hadn't thought of him for so long. How had that happened? Who could forget that face?

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

Elijah laughed. "I was under the impression my favourite author was signing today. Turns out I was wrong but I figured I might as well get you to sign instead."

"Ah, the famous Elijah wit, it's been a while since I've heard that." Autumn replied, sliding back into their age old banter.

"Not as famous as yours, of course." He said. "Last I checked, BBC and Channel 4 didn't care enough to air what I have to say."

"Well, I'll make sure to send out a memo. Obviously that's a tragedy."

Elijah grinned once more. "I knew I could rely on you."

"Why the hell are you queuing up? All you had to do was get in touch with me, it would have saved you the trouble."

Elijah scrunched his face up at that. "Oh please woman," he said. "I carelessly ignore you for four years and then get in touch with you the moment you're rich and famous. You would have blocked me from your phone. I dread to think how many people have tried to capitalise on that."

"You didn't ignore me, you loser. I moved away."

"Still. I didn't want to take the piss."

Autumn rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to further protest but Elijah thrust his copy of her book in front of her. It was tattered and dog eared, it looked like it had been chucked about. She raised her eyebrows at it.

"Do you not know how to look after a book?" She asked.

"I like the well-read look."

"Well-read?" Autumn scoffed. "Elijah, this thing looks like it's been thrown at the bottom of a bag and forgotten about."

"So, I've taken it a few places with me." Elijah said, with a shrug.

Autumn let out a little giggle and opened the front cover.

"Who shall I make it out to?" She asked with a smile.

"Your name will do." He answered. "It will sell a lot easier on eBay if it doesn't have a name attached to it."

"I hate to break it to you, but no one is going to buy this book on eBay."

"What are you talking about? It's fine."

Autumn just shook her head and proceeded to sign her name inside the cover.

"Next time you get the urge to see me, just call me okay?" She said. "I'm officially giving you permission."

"Sure thing." Elijah said with a laugh. He saluted to Autumn. "See you around, Blake."

"Later, loser."

And he was gone. She watched him leave with a sigh, wishing that she'd somehow said more, done more. That was too fleeting.

She'd signed several more books before Leah came and sat next to her and addressed the person arriving at the table.

"My apologies, I just need a moment with Autumn." She said with her best smile. "Autumn, I just have a few urgent things to go over with you.

She then proceeded to thrust her iPad in front of Autumn. On it she had written: "Who was that beautiful man? How do you know him? Is he single? And if so, why are you not hitting that?"

Autumn suppressed the urge to laugh and nodded professionally, smiling apologetically at the woman standing in front of her.

"I see," she said to Leah. "Yes well that would have to be filed away in the early years of the character's life. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to answer everything they need here. She is a complex character."

"Don't I know it." Leah said with a roll of her eyes. "Can you at least respond to this one?"

She underlined the "Is he single?" question with her finger.

"I don't have an answer for that at this point."

"Do you know when you might have an answer?"

"I have no timeline for that, no."

"Would you like me to look into it?"

"No need." Autumn said, giving her a warning look. This woman was hellbent on fixing Autumn up with anyone and everyone.

"Okay, so..." Leah started and began to type on the iPad again. The question was simple: "Are you going to see him again?"

"I would definitely be interested in that, yes."

Leah looked as if Autumn had just agreed to give her the entire earnings from all her books combined. She reeled it in before anyone noticed the excitement on her face and mimicked Autumn's earlier professional nod.

"Well that's all I needed to know," she said. "Except, I just got an order through for you that needed your approval."

She tapped on a bookmark and up popped a beautiful white wedding dress.

"Shall I go ahead and order this?" She asked, unable to control her wink that accompanied it.

"I think that may be a little too hasty." Autumn said, rolling her eyes.

"Sure thing." Leah said and addressed the woman in front of them again. "Sorry about that, she's all yours."